


wake me up at the border

by mollivanders



Category: Lost
Genre: Domestic, F/M, Gen, On the Run, Post-Series, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-20
Updated: 2012-08-20
Packaged: 2017-11-12 12:21:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/490940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mollivanders/pseuds/mollivanders
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time Sawyer tries cooking for her, he nearly burns the house down. He never should have attempted it, but it was Aaron's first night alone at Claire's and Kate almost runs out of town; runs to Sawyer's house instead. It's a mess and Miles is studiously ignoring them as he watches the tv, but the look on Sawyer's face when he opened the door was all the reason Kate needed to stay.</p><p>"What were you trying to do?" she asks, a grin fighting its way across her face as she watches him battle the flames with a kitchen towel and he turns to glare at her, perched on the counter and being entirely unhelpful.</p>
            </blockquote>





	wake me up at the border

**Author's Note:**

> **Title: wake me up at the border**  
>  Fandom: Lost  
> Rating: G  
> Characters: Sawyer/Kate  
> Author's Note: Word Count - 621. Written as part of a meme with _cooking lessons_ as the prompt. I cheated a bit. Post-series.  
>  Disclaimer: I own nothing.

The first time Sawyer tries cooking for her, he nearly burns the house down. He never should have attempted it, but it was Aaron's first night alone at Claire's and Kate almost runs out of town; runs to Sawyer's house instead. It's a mess and Miles is studiously ignoring them as he watches the tv, but the look on Sawyer's face when he opened the door was all the reason Kate needed to stay.

"What were you trying to do?" she asks, a grin fighting its way across her face as she watches him battle the flames with a kitchen towel and he turns to glare at her, perched on the counter and being entirely unhelpful.

"I was _searing_ it," he says, like it's the most obvious thing in the world and Kate arches an eyebrow, surveys the motley collection of spices and vegetables he's laid out.

"You got a girl coming over or something, Sawyer?" she jokes and he huffs and douses the destroyed pan in the sink.

"I'll order Chinese," she says, and as she hops off the counter it occurs to her she's not worrying about Aaron.

(That doesn't worry her either.)

+

On one of her trips out of town, she swings by Miami to see Kevin. He's put on some weight and she spots a pretty blonde woman through the window. She's wearing a white coat and Kate doesn't know what she was planning but she never goes through with it, leaves without a second thought. The domesticity is painfully familiar, follows her all the way home.

It could only have ended in tears anyway.

When she gets back, she's at Claire's for an hour before Sawyer calls for her. Claire looks at her, confused and Kate shrugs, takes the phone.

"Just had a feeling," he says, and Kate figures he knows more than he's letting on. "We're making dinner," she says. "Come over." There's a long pause before Sawyer answers and Kate can feel a swell building between them. "Another time," he says, and it feels like a promise.

+

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Three years after they get back, three years after Kate's mostly stuck around, Sawyer knocks on her door and she feels a change in the wind.

"Now or never, Freckles," he says.

She drives.

+

They could keep in touch, but they don't. Miles will be pissed, Claire will be hurt, but Kate just drives further and further south, the sun rising and setting on either side as they pass through deserts, cross a national border and don't look back.

"What changed your mind?" she asks when they're deep in Mexico, making plans to drive down the coast. Sawyer looks up from his book - a battered Dickens he'd bought for five cents from a street vendor - and puts it away. "Same reason you did," he says as she lies down, steals his book.

"Old habits," she lies.

(Same habits as always. Roots, deep roots, then no roots at all.)

But she isn't worried. This kind of running - well, she could disappear, if she wanted to, but it feels enough as it is. Somewhere between where she's always been and where she should have been, and Kate is willing to split the difference.

They stay for a while though, and Kate's got no quarrel with this ocean, this beach, this canopy of trees. One morning she wakes up to the smell of breakfast and finds hot, strong coffee waiting for her in the kitchenette.

"You made breakfast without me?" she asks, mock offended and Sawyer smirks, fills her plate. "I burn things," he says. "You destroy them."

She drinks her coffee in peace.

_Finis_


End file.
